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On the 1st of August 2004 (Dei be Mehr, Amordaad 3742), we organized a conversion ceremony for a group of Iranians who desired for years to convert to Zoroastrianism (Zartoshti). The initiation took place at Radisson SAS Hotel in Norway and was performed traditionally by Zoroastrian Mobed. Participants (Nozoodan) were crying of happiness while reading the promise and the Avesta of Koshti. Relatives and friends were also gathered to celebrate their return to roots and share their joy and happiness.

Due to high desire of many Iranians to convert, we have decided to hold another initiation ceremony in Norway. The next initiation will take place in soon future in Oslo, the capital city of Norway. There are many other Iranians and non-Iranian people worldwide who have contacted us for conversion. We welcome anyone who feel Zoroastrian in their hearts to participate in this initiation and become formally Zaratushti. If you live in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, England, etc. you may travel to Oslo and fulfill your wish; there are daily flights directly to Oslo. Please contact us for more details. After Oslo, in future we will have other ceremony projects in central Europe and Central Asia and other big cities where new Mazda worshippers are waiting for initiation into the faith.

For the memory of Nahaavand battle where 100,000 brave Iranians were killed by invaders.

Those souls were defending their homeland and faith. Your Kaviani Derafsh will always "wave high" in our hearts.

Dogs and cats living together! A mainstream Western paper has published an article that acknowledges the Islamic record of ethnic cleansing! (hat tip: Mirabilis.ca)

Zoroastrianism flourished in Persia, now Iran, for more than two millennia, greatly influencing Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. But it was decimated by the Arab invasion of Persia in 651.

....

Iran's Islamic leaders ''have tried for centuries to sweep away all trace of Zoroastrianism," said Sohrab Yazdi, a community leader in Yazd, where most of Iran's estimated 30,000 Zoroastrians live.

Pointing to the bright dome of the Jame mosque in the city's center, Yazdi said it was built over a destroyed ''fire" temple[Hagia Sophia or Masjid al-Babri, anyone?], as Zoroastrian places of worship are called because of the sacred fire that burns perpetually within.

But from outside the shattered splendor of Persepolis, the ancient capital of Persia, Bahram Agaheri, a Muslim teacher, talked in elegiac rhythms about the desire of many Iranians to rediscover the faith of their forefathers.

''People are tired of the mullahs," Agaheri said, referring to the country's religious leaders. ''If we were allowed to convert, millions would convert to Zoroastrianism. I challenge the government to allow conversion out of Islam for even one day."

But he is unlikely to see that day. Islam bans its adherents from converting, and a Muslim who renounces his faith can face a death sentence.

Caught between a religion that will not allow them out and one that will not let them in, many Iranians are thought to practice Zoroastrianism in secret.

There is also evidence that people in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and some Kurdish regions are rediscovering their Zoroastrian and Persian roots.

A secularized version of Nowruz, the traditional Zoroastrian New Year, is increasingly being celebrated across the region.

These tremors of change excite many Zoroastrians, who despite their demographers' troubling estimates, think their religion is poised to witness a renaissance. But such change also makes many uncomfortable.

Mistri and Yazdi agreed that Zoroastrians do not have the wherewithal to deal with any political backlash from Iran's radical Islamists or India's Hindu nationalists, who also oppose religious conversions.

''You must understand our apprehension," Yazdi said. ''We are like a small, colorful fish in a big pond. One wrong move and we will be eaten."

Tarikh-i Bukhara, c. 944.
The residents of Bukhara became Muslims. But they renounced [Islam] each time the Arabs turned back. Qutayba b. Muslim made them Muslim three times, [but] they renounced [Islam ] again and became nonbelievers. The fourth time, Qutayba waged war, seized the city, and established Islam after considerable strife....They espoused Islam overtly but practiced idolatry in secret.

"Americans might be surprised to learn that the seven-pointed halo which guilds the Statue of Liberty is linked to Mithra, a Zarathusti archangel of good governance."

The broad swath of modern history generally sees the collapse of the Persian Empire as the classical demise of one civilization at the hands of another, more powerful aggressor. Yet, as Kriwaczek suggests, a more nuanced reading of history and the reality of modern Iran reveals something else—something that my friend the sculptor was acting out as he crafted a Zarathusti Farohar in that narrow alley. “In our hearts we are still Zarathusti,” a number of Iranians quietly said to me as I traveled through the ancient cities and historical sites Kriwaczek describes in his book.

Iranians’ obvious and immutable connection to their past sits uneasily with the orthodox Islamists who rule them. “The absolutist nature of political Islam has always found it unacceptable to accede that even a trace of Zarathustianism remains in Iran,” an academic in Shiraz said to me. Like all others with whom I spoke, he requested anonymity.

Kriwaczek speculates on how Zoroastrianism survived thirteen centuries: “New converts don’t just give up their former spiritual and ethical world-view; they usually bring them along, transferring the old wine into the new bottle.” The Persians accepted the simple purity of Islam as their new faith but nevertheless found ways to preserve their heritage. “Just as in Europe the Holy Roman Empire—‘neither holy, nor Roman, nor or an empire,’ as Voltaire said—was actually a way for baptized German warlords to repackage their pagan traditions in Christian wrapping, so Iranian Islam came to incorporate Iranian national consciousness, Iranian national pride and, yes, Iranian Zoroastrian beliefs.”

Kriwaczek illustrates this point with examples drawn from Persian architecture and poetry. To show, for example, how Persian arts, culture, and science quickly infused Iranian Islam, he compares two pairs of religious buildings—the first and earlier pair a staid and pious structure (Orthodox Islam holds that it is a sin to depict any living thing), the second a structure of perfect geometry resplendent with animal and bird carvings. Kriwaczek also shows that Iranian literary traditions, as personified first by the 12th-century poet Ferdowsi—author of the Shah-nameh, or Book of Kings, the national epic of Iran—and later by the mystic poets Hafez, Sa’adi, and Rumi, are unabashedly pre-Islamic, both in treatment and content. In Shah-nameh Ferdowsi writes that

Zardosht (Zarathustra), the prophet of the Most High, appeared in the land . . .
And showed the people a new faith . . .
He reared throughout the realm a tree with beautiful foliage.
Men rested beneath its branches . . .
(and) became perfect in wisdom and faith.

Islamists still struggle to understand how a good Muslim like Ferdowsi could say that another prophet than Muhammad could make men “perfect” in faith.

The poems of the mystics were so influential that they helped to initiate an entirely new branch of Islam, Sufism, which added to the earlier split between Iranians and Arabs into Shi‘ite and Sunni Islam. Expectedly, many Sunnis saw Sufism as heresy and to this day it remains banned in Saudi Arabia.

...

“A loss of faith with the mullahs [in government] has led to a loss of faith in the religion,” says Azar Bharami, a lawyer and women’s rights activist in Tehran. “When the government does not respect the [line] between religion and state how can people?” Numerous surveys, including one by the magazine Asr-e Ma (“Our Era”), have shown that most Iranians under the age of 25—who make up 50 percent of the overall population—consider themselves agnostic. Many young Iranians are cynical, even derisive, about their religion. Epithets like “mad mullahs” and “this thing Islam” are not uncommon.

At a time when many Iranians feel violated by the religious and political extremism inflicted upon them, but remain powerless to act against it, romantic allusions to ancient Persia offer hope. Evidence of popular fascination with Iran’s Persian heritage is everywhere. Stone carvings, paintings, and pictures of Persepolis adorn the walls of many homes, office buildings, and restaurants. In dusty bus stations across Iran’s desert towns, transport companies have painted Farohars on the sides of their sandblasted buses. Savvy marketers have also begun to tap into the trend. The newest model of the locally made Peugeot sedan in Iran has been branded Pars (Persepolis) and consumer products with names like Parsian line the shelves of Iran’s tiny street stores.

Iranians are trying to discover who they really are,” Bharami said. “They feel shamed by their government and let down by their religion . . . they want something to believe in.” What remains mostly unsaid—not least because saying it could invite a death sentence—is that the increasing interest in Iran’s pre-Islamic past is also fueling an interest in its ancient Zarathusti religion.

“If we were allowed to convert religions, millions would convert [back] to Zarathusti,” a middle-aged Muslim man in Tehran told me. “I challenge the government to allow conversion out of Islam for even one day.”

...

Kurdish religious practices bear close resemblance in ritual style to the Zarathusti faith. The original religion of the Kurds was Yezidism, a religion greatly influenced by Zoroastrianism, and many Kurds were also Zoroastrian until the Islamic conversions that began in the seventh century. Today, about 25 percent of Kurds still practice Yezidism, which is centered around the town of Lalish in northern Iraq.

According to Dr. Pir Mamou Othman, an expert on Kurdish religious practices, “the Yezidis pray in a way which resembles the prayer-rituals of the Zoroastrians, something especially noticeable in the morning-prayer where the face is turned towards the sun. Their cycle of five prayers also stems from Zoroastrianism, and not from Islam, as is often stated.” Though 70 percent of Kurds are nominally Islamic (the remaining 5 percent are Jewish and Christian), they hold their Islam lightly, practicing a syncretic articulation of the faith that reflects their pre-Islamic past.

There are reports, mostly unconfirmed, that in the face of persecution from both Shias and Sunnis and their growing political independence, some Kurdish tribes have begun to embrace Zoroastrianism. In a rare interview on the subject, Mahir Welat—representative of the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK) and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to the Russian Federation—said that “For a time the Kurds forgot about their Zoroastrianism roots but now it is our intention to return and to educate ourselves.”

It is not completely coincidental that it took a person in Welat’s position to make these comments. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, many people in southern Russia and the newly independent Central Asian republics of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan, historically part of the Persian Empire, have openly embraced Zoroastrianism.

As these republics struggle to reimagine themselves as sovereign states, they are drawn to their ancient ethnic roots. Leaders of the republics, especially President Imomali Rahmonov of Tajikistan, support the resurgent interest in Zoroastrianism, which they hope might counter the radical Islam that the Saudis and others are trying to export into the region.

Post-Islamic History of Zoroastrians of Iran through Political Analysis and Historical Letters

Series:
Zoroastrian Genocide

Author:
Jahanian, Dr. Daryoush

The Arab invasion of Iran in 630 A.D. and its consequences have never been researched impartially, because they always carry religious sentiments. It is taught and popularized that the Arabs brought Islam to Iran, and the Iranians being frustrated by their

government, the strict religious code interfering with their daily life and the established Sasanian's cast system embraced Islam's message of equality and brotherhood. This view however is not only far from the historical evidences but contradicts the basic human instincts. The fact is that people on the whole do not give up their original tenets and traditions easily to adhere to the new one. Even the primitive Arabs did not abandon their old religion that simple, as there were several religious wars (Ghazvah) in which many of the nonbelievers were massacred. The Arab conquest not only did not eliminate the cast system, but soon Iranians found themselves part of the two new casts, slaves and Mavali. The mass of Iranian women, children and captured men were sold in the Arabian markets and even those who converted to Islam did not receive freedom. They were called Mavali or the liberated slaves, who were mostly deprived of basic rights, could not ride horses or carry weapons and at times being part of the asset were given away as gifts. The mass enslavement of Iranians was so rampant that in a story that Shiites made to relate the family of Imam Ali to the Sassanians, even the daughter of Yazdgard, Shahrbanou was sold as slave in Medina market to Imam Ali who gave her to his son, Imam Hussain to marry. By this narrative the Shiites believe that Imam Hussein's descendants are blood related to the Sassanians.

The cultural calamity was disastrous. Books were burned, scholars slain and schools and libraries were destroyed because the invaders regarded the Koran as the last book that nullified the existing ones. Iran in a short period of time fell from a global power and world's center of science to an illiterate and backward country that could never stand on her feet. For centuries afterwards until the time of Safavid dynasty at the turn of the fifteenth century it was not even a country under one flag.

Safavid Dynasty
The ancestor of the Safavids, Sheikh Saffi Ardbili was a Sunni Moslem. The founder of the dynasty, Shah Ismail embraced Shiism to unify the nation and encourage them to fight against the Ottoman Turks who were Sunnis. This policy was favored by the major European powers that faced the threat of the Ottaman Turks from the east. Turks were invading Europe and Islamizing the eastern parts; the goal was to keep them engaged in the south. The conversion of Iranians however was not an easy task. The majority were Sunnis and 0/040 of the nation or four million had preserved the old religion and remained Zoroastrian. The other problem was the absence of Shiite clergy to educate the public. Furthermore the existing large Zoroastrian sector raised concern for reversion to the old religion.

The shortage of clergy was resolved by bringing them from other areas such as Lebanon and Bahrain. Conversion of the Sunni majority to Shiism was carried out by force and bloodshed. In the turmoil many Zoroastrians lost their lives, and to eliminate the threat of reversion, many inhumane acts were implemented against them. Jews and Christians were regarded as the owners of the book because Moses and Jesus are named in the Koran and several Suras are specified to them but Zarathushtra is not mentioned. Although at this era non-Moslems in general were not treated with dignity, but no community and religion suffered as much as the Zoroastrians. A law enacted that if a member of a family converted to Islam, he was entitled to all the inheritance. The religious tax or Jizya was imposed and those who could not afford were subject to torture, loss of life and confiscation of property or had to convert. Zoroastrians even had to wear a yellow patch to be distinguished in public, by that they were subjected to insults and persecution. They were despised as Gabre or Gavre, which in public mind was equal to

(Kafir) or faithless, and the Zoroastrian ghettos were called “Gavrestan" which in Persian is reminiscent of 'Goorestan’ or cemetery. The Moslem clergy was particularly active in instigating hatred against the Zoroastrian population causing them more persecution and even massacres.

Zoroastrians Condition in Iran during the reign of Shah Abbas Safavid:
Suffering of the Zoroastrians during the rule of Shah Abbas the Great ( 1587 -1628A.D .) in particular was intensified. The eastern and Pahlavi philosophy had been revived and gained momentum. He was determined to crash the movement at root. The followers of Darvish Mahmood Passikhani who were called Ajamiyoun (Persians) and believed that the Arab era is over and the new Persian period is to begin were massacred. Shah Abbas personally executed several of their leaders. His serious concern about the Pahlavi philosophy and reversion caused him to carry a harsh anti Zoroastrian policy. In a letter dated Bahman Rooz, Ardibehesht Mah,1 005 Yazdgardi (1015 Hijri), the Zarthushtis of Sharifabad, Yazd wrote to the Parsis of India: "In the year 977 Yazdgardi (987 Hijri) the agents of Shah Abbas came to Yazd to confiscate our religious books. They murdered two Mobeds who refused to surrender them. In Turkabad many Mobeds who refused to surrender the books were killed. The agents plundered and destroyed many scriptures here.” Professor Zabih Behtooz writes, "Shah Abbas executed many intellectuals and Zoroastrians under the pretext of atheism.”

In 1006 Hijri Shah Abbas dispatched troops to the Caspian province of Mazandaran and forcefully converted them to Islam. By this time not only the province had remained Zoroastrian but was ruled by a Zoroastrian dynasty named Padouspanian. At his order many Zoroastrians were forcefully deported and settled in a ghetto town near Isfahan, named Gabrabad During the deportation many lost lives. To this people who had been detached from their farms and businesses no job was given. They had been brought there to do the menial jobs that no one would accept Pietro Della Valle, a Roman tourist in his letter dated December 8, 1617 writes: the streets of Gabrabad are wide and well designed but the houses are one floor and small reflecting the poverty of the tenants. He adds, the Zoroastrians cannot own business and mostly are laborers and farmers. Their cloth is thick with the color of mud brick. It is worth mentioning that Shah Abbas transferred Armenians from the Julfa of Tabriz and settled them in Julfa near Isfahan. Della Vane writes about Julfa that most Armenians are merchants and wealthy and they are treated favorably. Jean Chardin, a French traveler (1643-1713) writes: few Gabres and Parsis remain. These are the original Iranians who adhere to their old traditions and religion. Many of their houses and villages in the south of Isfahan were destroyed by Moslems and during the civil war and few could take refuge in Yazd and Kerman. These people are so miserable they could not afford to provide a gift on the occasion of the coronation of King Soleiman the third and they were excused religion. Many of their houses and villages in the south of Isfahan were destroyed by Moslems and during the civil war and few could take refuge in Yazd and Kerman.

The role of the Shiite clergy:
To prevent reversion, the Shiite clergy exerted a strong role. Their writings instigated hatred against the Zoroastrians. Particularly in order to make them more effective and affirmative, these fabrications were mostly attributed to the Holy Imams.

Some examples are presented below:

"Majussis (Magians or Zoroastrians) had a book named Jand and Pajand that were burned in fire. They had a prophet named Zardosht who was killed. He had a book written on 12000 hides. Jihad against them is a religious duty until they convert to Islam or promise that will not commit adultery with Moslem women (marrying them)".

(Sheikh Bahai, the high cleric and scholar of Shah Abbas era). These writings have continued even to the 21st century C.E.

"A man named Zardosht brought a book for the Majussis and claimed prophet-hood. Some believed him and others did not and turned him away. He was killed and consumed by the wild animals in desert. The primitive Arabs were closer to God than the followers of Zardosht, because. and their king Kaikhosrow had killed three hundred prophets"

(20th centurt Iranian Shiite clergy and Islamic scholar, Rayshahri).

The founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini who was very concerned about reversion of Iranians to their ancient roots also wrote:

"Zardosht the magus and fire worshipper by some dishonorable knaves has been called holy and God worshipper. If this fire of dirt that has arisen from the temples of Fars are not extinguished, soon the trash will spread and they invite all to join them"

In such a hostile environment, the Zoroastrians suffered spiritually and materially, and had to subsist to preserve their faith. A letter belonging to the seventeenth century A.D. from a French priest to his boss is abridged here:

"Islam is not the only religion of the Iranians. There are many Iranians who have preserved their old religion. But they have none of their ancestral knowledge and science. They live in state of slavery and absolute misery. Most difficult and harshest public works are assigned to them. They mostly are porters or work in the farms. The state of slavery has caused them to be shy, naive and rough mannered. They speak in a different dialect and use their old alphabets. Iranians call them (Gavre), which mean idol worshippers, and they are treated much worse than the Jews. They are accused of being fire worshippers. ..but they respect the fire. They believe that in order to receive salvation, one should till the land and develop orchards, avoid polluting the water and putting down the fire. Their holiest man is named Zoroaster and their most important festival is Novruz... ."

The Worst Blow:
Despite all the adversities, the population of the Zoroastrians at the turn of the 18th century. was nearly one million. But the worst blow was delivered by the last Safavid king, Shah Sultan Hossein (1694-1722), a fanatic and superstitious man profoundly influenced by the clergy. Soon after his accession to the throne to popularize himself, he issued a decree that all the Zoroastrians should convert to Islam or face the consequences. Nearly all were slaughtered or coercively converted, few fled the blood bath and took refuge in Yazd and Kerman. By the French estimate a total of 80,000 Zoroastrians lost their lives, and the entire population of Isfahan’s Gabrabad was massacred. The Zoroastrian sources estimate the number of victims at hundreds of thousands. Today the people of Nain and Anar near Isfahan speak Dari (the dialect exclusively spoken by the Zoroastrians ), but they are Moslems.

To comprehend the extent of the Zoroastrian massacres just during the Safavid era, a demographic picture of the communities of central Iran is presented. Today the two central cities of Isfahan and Kashan have strong J ewish communities, and Julfa of Isfahan remains exclusively an Armenian town with churches and schools. But there is no native Zoroastrian community in these cities. The fledgling community of Isfahan is in fact a transplant; whose members in search of job opportunities in recent years have settled there and formed association.

Fear of reversion in the later era:
The reversion concern and writings of the Shiite clergy produced generations of hateful Moslems that despised the Zoroastrians as fire worshippers and considered them to be impure and outcast. This hostile sentiment did not cease after the Safavid and the misery and massacres went on. The reports of the European visitors reflect this fact. Ker Porter in his letter dated March 20,1818 wrote: "Many Zoroastrians are miserable and hopeless but they adhere to their religion. As they cannot afford to travel and take refuge in other countries, in their homeland suffer and endure the hardship. Their spirit is high toward the skies and their eyes look down to the ground in tears for the daily misery they face. They have used the cities of Yazd and Kerman for shelter and those who were able fled to the mountains and India. There are 4000 to 5000 of them in Yazd where more or less can practice their tradition. They are mostly good fanners, gardeners or artisans.”

General Houtum Schindler summarized the Zoroastrian's plight as "Forceful conversion to Islam, confiscation of their assets and inheritance, extortion of one fifth of the value of property or business for the Moslem clergy, prohibition of construction of new buildings or repair of the old ones, prohibition from putting on new dress or ride horse, forceful payment of extra tax (Jizya ), automatic exoneration of the murderers or culprits if they are Moslems and their victim is a Zoroastrian, or if they have attacked or burglarized the Zoroastrian houses or their shelters. "

Count de Gobineau,[i] the French ambassador to Iran in 1850s, presented a pessimistic view of the Zoroastrian community. He wrote: "Only 7000 of them remain and only a miracle may save them from extinction. They teach a lesson to the world that glory is not everlasting, because these are descendants of the people that one day ruled the world."

The historical letter of Maneckji:[ii]
Without the famous letter of Maneckji Limji Hataria, the emissary of the Parsis of India the list of the historical letters is incomplete. In 1855, after one year of staying in Iran, he reported to the Parsi Panchayet his findings on the Zoroastrian community of Iran.

"Dear Sir: This noble group has suffered in the hands of cruel and evil people, so much that they are alien to knowledge and science. For them even black and white, and good and evil are equal. Their men have been forcefully doing menial works in the construction and as slaves received no payments. As some evil and immoral men have been looking after their women and daughters, this sector of the community stays in door during the daytime. Despite all the poverty, heavy taxes under the pretext of land, space, pastureland, inheritance and religious tax (Jizya) are imposed on them. The local rulers have been cruel to them and have plundered their possessions. They have forced the men to do the menial construction work for them. Vagrants have kidnapped their women and daughters, worse than all the community is disunited. Their only hope is for the future savior (Shah Bahram Varjavand) to come. Because of extreme misery, belief in the savior is so strong that 35 years earlier when an astrologer forecasted the birth of the savior, many men in his search left the town and were lost in the desert and never returned. "Perhaps the following sentence from Maneckji epitomizes the sorry plight of the community; "I found the Zoroastrians to be exhausted and trampled so much that no one in this world can be even more miserable than them."

-----------------------------------------------------------

Although the Safavid unified Iran but the Iranians paid a very heavy price. Coercive conversion of Iranians to Shiism and concern about reversion resulted in many blood baths. Worse than all they used the power of clergy and religion to legitimate their actions and continue despotic rule. The damages caused by them, is well discerned in our time. In the course of events however, no community or religion suffered as much as the Zoroastrians. Despite that our books of history have maintained a total silence toward the dreadful massacre of Zoroastrians in central Iran and the coercive and violent conversion of Mazandaran. In the latter case usually a distorted picture of peaceful self-conversion is presented. The sentiment over the issue of reversion prevails even today, as there is generally less sensitivity toward conversion than reversion.

It is fitting to conclude with the words of Dastur Framroze Bode:[iii] "So many nations and religions have become part of ancient history , but despite the harsh treatment of history there must be a reason why the Zoroastrian religion has survived."

2. The Mongul Forced Conversion to Islam. Hollakoo & Ilkhanid dynasty forced conversion to Islam. Holakoo in a bid to unify his empire converted to Islam and froced everyone to convert. During the Ilkhanid before Holakoo, only 50% of Iran was muslim, the rest were Zoroastrian, Christian, Buddhist and Jewish.

Holakoo needed a way of unifying his empire, his religious choices were Christianity, Islam or Buddhism. I can see that a Mongol warrior was perhpas not too keen on the reglion of Jesus who was crucified, the Buddha who preached compassion or Zarthustra who preached good thoughts, words and deeds. However Islam, the relgion of a warrior prophet who brutally murdered his enemies and was gloriously victorious and preached total surrender, was Holakoo's ideal religion for a Mongul warrior and an empire in which all had to surrender to him. So thus we had another bloody forced mass conversion.

As for Holakoo's own personal conversion to Islam and how real it was, well he was buried in the way and manner of Mongolian Shamanism, all of which is taboo and sinful in Islam, thats how real his faith in Islam was. For Holakoo, Islam was just another tool of empire building.

3. The next forced conversion came with the Saffavids, who were mostly Sufi Shiites (who went off the deep end with paranoia during their reign, kind of like gnostic lunacy) and they needed Shiite Islam to fight 2 Sunni enemies actually, the Turks to the west which the article mentioned, and the dreaded Sunni Timurids to the Northeast Much of Safavid art borrowed from the Timurid, they had a sort of hangup about that.

4. The decadent Qajars, massacred and killed many Zoroastrians, and forced many to convert in the 19th century, especially in Khorassan. I will look for another scholarly essay on this subject and post it here.

5. The 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran paid for by the Soviet Union, Moamar Qaddaffi of Libya, and fought by mercenaries and guns of Arafat and the Palastinians, another foreign invasion using Islam and forced Islam resulting in wholesale destruction of Iran, Iranians and Iranianism!

So as everyone can see, Islam has always been a tool of political invasion, occupation, repression and looting of Iran by its foreign enemies.

Everytime Iranians would start to raise their heads above the indentured servitude that Islam had imposed on them and start to rediscover their roots and reclaim their rights and identity, there would be another crushing blow and forced Islamic Toosari (slap on the head). Like the Pahlavi dynasty and its Rennaissance of Iranianism, which was brutally crushed with the Islamic revolution that targetted all Iranian and Persian cultural identity as the greatest sin. There is a reason why the Mullah$, the Leftist Islamists and their intellectaul collaborators all named the Shah's greated sin as the 2500 year celebrations.

Personallly, I can't imagine anyone reading Iranian history not realising that Islam has been used as a political tool for invasion, occupation and repression of Iran and Iranians in the last 1400 years. And I can't personally understand why any Iranian would not rise up and throw off these schackles in recognition of the vast suffering of all their ancestors, but heck everyone has their own path, so I figure for some Islam is their path, but it sure ain't mine.

This was fairly long article and some people might have missed all the points. I want everyone to see the following quote in the article:

"Zardosht the magus and fire worshipper by some dishonorable knaves has been called holy and God worshipper. If this fire of dirt that has arisen from the temples of Fars are not extinguished, soon the trash will spread and they invite all to join them"

This was fairly long article and some people might have missed all the points. I want everyone to see the following quote in the article:

"Zardosht the magus and fire worshipper by some dishonorable knaves has been called holy and God worshipper. If this fire of dirt that has arisen from the temples of Fars are not extinguished, soon the trash will spread and they invite all to join them"

This was a 'sedreh pooshi' ceremony for those who were converting to Zoroastrianism. After a speech by a woman, the priests conducted the ceremony, those converting had tears in their eyes. Afterwards everyone hugged.

Conducted by Bozorg Bazgasht, the great return group, in Norway. They are asking all the Iranians who want to convert to come to Oslo for the next one.

With Chahrshanbeh Soori, Noruz & Farvardin around the corner, I thought it would be a good time to revisit Zarthustra's birthday, which used to be celebrated on the 6th day of Noruz. After the Arab Islamic invasion, most of the Zarhustra and Zoroastrian origins of the holiday were stripped away, much in the same way the Soviet Union stripped Christmas of Jesus. So here's a reminder of some of the ideas that were once part of the Noruz festivities:

In whose birth and growth,
the waters and plants flourished;
in whose birth and growth,
the waters and plants increased;
and in whose birth and growth,
the entire progressing creation shouted:
"Hail to us, for us is born
a righteous leader--Zarathushtra Spitâma!
The Good Religion of Mazda-worship
will, henceforth, spread all over
the seven regions of the earth.

A bonny boy was born to Dughdav and Pourushaspa Spitâma on a fine morning of early spring 3,767 years ago. He was their third son. They named him Zarathushtra to rhyme with the names of his two elder brothers -- Rataushtra and Rangushtra. The Spitâmas were a prosperous cattle-raising family and lived near the bank of a river, later called Dâiti, the Lawful, in Airyana Vaeja, once northeastern Iran and now in Central Asia. Dughdav was an exceptionally open-minded, bright lady. She took care of Zarathushtra’s education and provoked in him the desire to search and discover. She set him on the road to discover truth, the truth.

Provoked to discover truth, Zarathushtra discovered Mazda Ahura , literally The Super-Intellect Being, a god so different from human-visualized gods, a god transcendental and yet so close as to be a beloved, a god very impersonal in mind but very personal in thought, a god that means only good. A Super-Intellect that wisely creates, sustains, maintains, and promotes Its creation. A Super-Intellect that is spenishta mainyu, the Most Progressive Mind, the most increasing mentality and not a static godhead. A Super-Intellect that communes with Its creations and inspires them through seraosha, the inner-voice within them. A Super-Intellect that has granted freedom of thought, will, word, action, and choice to creations and endowed them with good mind, truth, power, and peace to prosper and progress to wholeness and immortality.

Zarathushtra's one discovery, the best, Mazda, provided him with all the principles of the good life on this earth and beyond. Provoked by his mother when he was a child, he became Mânthran, thought-provoker par excellence for humanity. He laid the foundation of his universal religion, Daenâ Vanguhi, the religion of Good Conscience, the religion that means constant progress, continuous modernization toward eternal bliss.

Very few of the founders of religions and doctrines have lived long enough to see their mission completed as desired. Very few of them have passed away satisfied with the progress of the task begun by them. Asho Zarathushtra is one of those very few. He proclaimed his divine mission at the age of thirty; successfully withstood all the difficulties created by his enemies, the priests and princes of the old cult for a good ten years; took two full years to convince King Vishtaspa and his sagacious court of the truth of his mission; and passed thirty-seven happy years in working and watching his task bearing increasing fruit. He died a very happy and satisfied person at the age of, a tradition says, seventy-seven years and forty days.

The extent Avesta has two eulogies in honor of Zarathushtra -- both in the Farvardin Yasht, the reverential record of the men and women who served with Zarathushtra in promulgating the Good Religion. The first, the longer poem, a later composition, rejoices at his birth in early spring -- 6th Farvardin 30 years BZRE (before Zarathushtrian Religious Era), 26th March 1767 BCE. The other, shorter but older, has been sung to praise his accomplishments. It is the only one in which he is addressed in superlatives. Yet he is not deified. He is clearly said to be the lord and leader of human beings even in this bodily life. Yet the Avesta recognizes only one God as the Lord and Leader of the Spiritual and Material Existences. And Zarathushtra has remained a human being all through the 4,000-year history of the Zarathushtrian religion, an unusual phenomenon in the history of religions.

The other epithet used in the above eulogy is "paoiryo-tkaesha," literally "of the primal doctrine," herein translated as "foremost in the divine doctrine." This term stands for all those men and women, including Zarathushtra, who were first and foremost to choose the Good Religion in their lineage and serve its cause. Their children and grandchildren, who were also promoters of their mission, are called "nabanazdisht," nearest offspring. These two categories of the faithful hold the highest position in Zarathushtrian lore.

No doubt, Asho Zarathushtra is the first and foremost of the paoiryo-tkaesha. He is our lord, leader, and rehabilitator, our guiding light. We hail his birthday, the Hope for the rebirth of the living world.

Let us praise him in the words of the Farvardin Yasht as given in the shorter eulogy:
"We revere Zarathushtra as the lord and leader of the material existence. He is the foremost in the Divine Doctrine. Amongst all human beings, he is the best of the well-established and the best of the good-ruling. Amongst all human beings, he is the most splendid and the most glorious. Amongst all human beings, he is the most worthy of veneration and the most worthy of admiration. Amongst all human beings, he is the most worthy of our pleasure and the most worthy of our praises. Because the best righteousness should be the criterion, he is, for us, the cherished, and worthy of veneration and glorification." (Farvardin Yasht, 152)

Especially at a time that world's FIRST MONOTHEASTIC RELIGION is in serious danger of extinction.

Reports show only 200,000 zoroastrians left in the world, while at one point it was the dominant world religion.

Although the Arab Invasion and Massacres in Persia and surrounding countries is the main reason for this, there are other more recent attmpts to destroy and limit this most peaceful, logical and humaniterian of Human worldview which should not be ignored.

At the time of British invasion and take over of India, the Parsi (persian origin zoroastrians naturalized to India after Arab Invasion) were manipulated by british policies and some of the high ranking religious figures seem to be in a mission to PREVENT the spread of Zoroastrian worldviews while the new generations of Parsis want to break through such POLITICS and save the dying religion.

It's important to research and publish the role of zartoshti religious leaders in India (influenced by British Politics) to prevent the spread of Zoroastrianism.

it's true that parsis promised the king of Gujurat to keep to themselves, while taking refuge to India 1400 years ago; but these are different times and no one in Inia opposes zoroastrian teachings and conversion to the faith, BUT British Backed Religious figures THEMSELVES!!!

Both of them should know better: that their policies only lead to a higher desire for conversion, and there is no way they can prevent it.

just as the British policies of destruction of Persian Culture, has backfired today while Persians look to their origins for inspirations more than ever!

Maybe it's time for the British Evil Empire to look into their own past, and learn a few lessons from history:

They have brought their own demise.

and the more they continue their evil ways, the lower they will sink.

Long Live Humanity,

only without colonialist, fascist rulers!_________________Paayande Iran

Ha ha im back and im here to spoil all youre historical fantasys again! lol i dont mean any ofence but in the interest of maintaining a non biased and respectable front we should refrain from the overly patriotic made up history.

Quote:

while at one point it was the dominant world religion.

Im afraid this is not true, but in a good way. It isd precisely because the Achamenids never imposed their religion on their subjects that it never grew in the way christianity did. So hence it was never the most important religion._________________"When on the battlefield if you have the sole intention of breaking into the enemy lines, you will manifest martial valour. Furthermore if you are slain in battle you should be resolved to having your corpse facing the enemy" - Yamamoto tsunetomo

*Any* religion can be, and has been misused by corrupt or violent people, but you can argue that most of the ethical progress since the dawn of history came in the context of religious thought or closely related philosophical thought. Religion can be used as a weapon to abuse or dehumanize other people, but it can also be a tool for self-examination and improvement.

As I have researched my ancestors, I'm struck how much America itself was shaped by Protestant Christians seeking freedom of worship, and how deeply their ethos is ingrained even today. I don't see how a doctrine of mere nonbelief, without something more, could provide the same sort of underpinning for a society._________________The Sun Is Rising In The West!Soon It Will Shine on All of Iran!